It’s been 40 years since performance standards were substantially revised for Head Start. The newly Revised Head Start Rules were approved and released last September. They include four major changes: increased duration, expanded access, special supports for vulnerable populations, and improved supports for teachers. In this blog post, Eboni Howard offers a run-down on the evidence-base for these new rules.

Eboni Howard has devoted her career to researching early care and child development, working to ensure that all children receive high-quality early experiences—regardless of race, ethnicity, income, or zip code. In the second podcast episode in the Education Policy Center's Equity Series, Howard and Peter Cookson discuss what research has shown and the implications for policymakers.

Eboni Howard shares what’s known—and isn’t—about early childhood programs and asks legislators to invest in research-based paths to greater equality of opportunity for the children who will become America’s labor force, citizenry, and leaders.

As national attention has increasingly focused on the potential for high-quality early childhood education (ECE) to improve children’s school readiness, states have developed quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs) to document the quality of ECE programs, support systematic quality improvement, and provide clear information to families about their child care choices. This brief discusses quality improvement supports, including their prevalence in state and regional QRISs, and key considerations for their implementation.

The persistence of gaps in education, income, health, and other socioeconomic indicators suggests the urgent need to reduce inequality early in life. In this white paper, Eboni Howard reviews the science of early childhood and summarizes the disparities and the opportunity gaps stemming from inequalities, describing programs, services, and policies that might affect the extent of inequality and provide supportive early life experiences.

Documenting and improving early childhood program quality is a national priority, leading to a rapid expansion of Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRISs). QRISs document and improve the quality of early childhood education programs and provide clear information to families about their childcare choices. Findings from this study suggest that incremental changes to how QRIS ratings are calculated can alter inferences about program quality.

The White House’s announcement December 10 of a $1-billion public-private investment in early childhood education programs raises critical questions about which program features will best help the projected 63,000 children affected learn and thrive. AIR’s early childhood experts weigh in here.

The Office of Head Start developed the Early Learning Mentor Coach initiative to improve practices in Head Start programs. AIR conducted a study to describe the objectives, activities, approaches, strategies and other aspects of the initiative.